Chinese mass counterfeiting gold and silver coins

I bought some austria philharmonics 1 oz coins that were shiny when I bought them. Months later I check them again and they are dull in color while my canadian maple leafs remain shiny. Is this normal?

then i'll buy.

I went to a rock show a few years ago in Arizona. They had beautiful mineralized rocks and polished stones from all over the world, I bought a few.

One vendor had what looked like real flakes of placer Gold in water in a small plastic container, at a cheap price. When I asked if it was Gold, they said yes.

Since the price was about $10. a capsule, I bought one,,,,went to my car,,,got a small open metal pan out and put a small amount of sand from the parking lot in the pan, a little water, and some {imitation} Gold flakes, and swished it around.

If it had been real Gold the flakes would have sunk under the sand when the swishing motion started.
Instead the flakes floated on the top of the water!

Conclusion:
It was dried flakes of Gold paint in the capsules.
I got my money back!

I have seen some panda silver coin with .999 fine silver marking selling at very low price. They are supposed to be place holder for the real ones.

I know there are companies online that sell some sort of chemical and scratching brick that test to see if the coin is real gold or silver...

Probably a smart investment if you plan on buying some coins...

1) Chinese are counterfeiting. http://www.coinworld.com/counterfeits/articles/counterfeits.asp

2) It's mostly older coins: Indian Heads, etc, but there are some Eagles and Buffalos.

3) The UPSIDE is that the fakes are easy to detect with a 100th Gram scale. The Counterfeiters use less than pure gold or a lower carat. If you don't have a scale, I'm sure a coin shop or pawn shop probably does.

4) If you buy something on Ebay and it turns out false, keep the Ebay purchase printout as receipt (I do anyway) and just turn it over to the Secret Service.

There are still more 'real' coins in the market than there are fakes, so unless you're doing a lot of antique shopping on Ebay, I wouldn't worry too much. Trust but verify.

don't believe this story.. this is about scaring the week hands out of the market and into treasuries. the price of gold may come down to 675 or so then shoot up to 1900.00 because then people will realize just how bad the shortage of gold and silver is.. take this with a grain of salt..

Dear Comrades In Golden Arms,

The following is the latest from Jim's Mailbox:

Jim,

Two rumors are starting to move around through the gold chat rooms. I wanted to give you a heads up so you can be prepared to quickly inform the community about them as you see fit. Both rumors have potential to shock weak gold holders into selling.

Volcker replaces Timmy. This could lead to a kneejerk gold selloff (based on the past) and equity volatility in both directions.
A gold exchange traders fund may have been holding bogus gold bars which have been fabricated by China. This piggybacks some phony Chinese gold coins that have shown up through an article in coin world. This would supposedly cause a selloff in GLD, therein frightening the community.

CIGA Ken

Dear Ken,

Volcker's history of jamming rates could only occur even then with the full support of the sitting administration. To believe anything like that could happen is madness. Replacing the Secretary of the Treasury by this Administration at this time is only something a chat group could come up with.
There is reality to fake gold. China is a whipping boy. We have more criminals in the West and need not look to Asia for crime. Maybe start looking in Washington and then move outwards.

If an ETF is in paper gold that fails or has purchased fake gold that is a problem for the holders of that fund and is bullish for gold. Buyer would stop buying paper gold except on the COMEX where they would take delivery out of the COMEX warehouse and stop those criminals from manipulating the gold market. I am always amazed at how silly people can be when it refers to gold.

The internet is a tool of manipulation across the board. Those that believe either of the above chat site madness as negative to gold are raving idiots.

Volcker would be bullish for gold as the Father of the Federal Reserve Gold Certificate Ratio, modernized and revitalized.

What is happening you ask? The Chairman of the Fed is speaking so gold should be lower and the US dollar should be higher. This is a market applause for his total fabrication of fact. Traders knowing this will jump on these directions, having succeeded in the past .

Listen to the Senators question Bernanke. People are getting red in the face mad at this ongoing monetary madness.

Consequences will not be voided .

Hyperinflation is the end of all this madness, lies and outright theft.

Respectfully yours,
Jim

testament to the Chinese people if all they can do is produce cheap knock-offs!
~Your perception becomes your reality~

Does the U.S. mint have a patent on gold coin designs pre-1933? If not, than what crime is being committed unless they claim to be of gold or silver and are not.
grant

Well I guess if they can produce American Eagle coins, cheaper than the U.S. mint, as long as they are real gold who cares? Gold is gold, isn't it?

What archimedes yelled when he found a way to distinguish "fake" gold from real gold.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Start getting freedom today by dumping Federal Reserve Notes, Stocks, Banks and anything made outside the USA. Buy precious metals, real estate, businesses, food and guns and get your business community to use local or sound currenc

and many of the other threads here on DP, about gold and silver, lead me to believe that a lot of you people who are talking about 'preserving your wealth' have no idea what your 'preservation of wealth' stash is really worth.

So, you think you got a great deal on Ebay, and you have a 'bunch' of gold and silver ( a bunch maybe meaning 1 gold coin and 5 or 10 silver coins ) that may be virtually worthless. Then you are going to spend some more money to buy some PVC tubes to bury this stash along a train track somewhere for when the SHTF.

I have to wonder if some of you are for real !

I don't think that Warren Buffet has this same mindset - and he, and others like him, has some REAL wealth to preserve !

But - whatever floats your boat.

Buy some seeds, and plant a garden.

Urban Survival was speculating in yesterday's post about this as a means to drive down the gold price cause a "just in time" rush to Treasuries bolstering the dollar.

www.urbansurvival.com/week.htm

"Want in on a little something the time monks are willing to share publicly? OK, try this one on --- but remember, this is a probability only and may or may not happen as expected...so think in terms of it being a possibility only for now...Ask yourself what would happen if a large financial entity - and it could be a private mint, an ETF, or something like that - was discovered in the next, oh, two or three weeks - to be holding a lot of counterfeit gold that was apparently made in China? Suppose further that the discovery happened during some kind of official audit process and that as word spread, it was discovered that not only were gold bars involved, but perhaps gold coins of recent vintage and maybe some involvement of silver as well. How would that work out?"

Just another reason not to allow imports ffrom China....

Also, don't break open your monster boxes of silver.

I may not know the truth, but I know when I'm being lied to...

.
Next thing you know they'll be pirating DVDs.

Oh wait.

They are counterfeiting NUMISMATIC coins - coins that get their value from being a rare year or rare minting. Another reason not to use numismatic coins as an investment.

As the prior poster said, you CAN'T counterfeit gold bullion coins. There is nothing with gold's density to make them out of that isn't more rare than gold. Yet another reason why gold is nearly perfect money.

Silver, on the other hand, CAN be adulterated with lead. Large silver bars can be drilled and filled with lead and the result would be undetectable with a scale. But coins? A silver-plated lead coin would be too heavy and the benefit of trying to drill the rim of a silver coin, fill it with just the right amount of lead, and then patch it back up and restore the knurl on the edge of the coin would be an awful LOT of trouble for a little bit of silver.